Mike Cohen

Boneheaded software licensing

by

I paid for SoundConverter when I had my old MacBook Pro. It turns out my license is no longer valid on my new MacBook Pro because it’s tied to the Ethernet address of my old one. Furthermore, the license is non-transferrable.

This is the height of boneheadedness. No other piece of software I own wouldn’t allow me to transfer it to my new system. I could deauthorize iTunes on my old MacBook Pro and re-authorize it on the new one. Even PhotoShop let me deactivate my license on the old system and reactivate it on the new one.

SoundConverter offers no such option and no discounted registration. My old registration is now useless since I’m not using that old MacBook Pro (which I’m still trying to sell, by the way). He’s not getting any more money for me. I’ll look for different software to use instead of SoundConverter.

To quote their FAQ:

I’ve moved to a new machine, can I transfer my license?

I’m sorry if it wasn’t clear, but as described on the license purchasing page, the license you purchased is only for the machine it was purchased for. This is why the cost is so low.

My logic-board was replaced, can I transfer my license?

Yes, if you send me the service receipt and the ethernet address of the new machine (as shown in the application’s license panel).

Why should I have to pay for a new license if my logic-board went bad or Apple replaced it?

Computers destroyed in a fire, lost, broken from technical failure, etc are the responisibility of the owner. I have no automated way of verifying these claims and since my software costs so little, I cannot afford to investigate them. In the future, if Apple provides a URL which I can send an ethernet address to in order to verify that the logic-board is no longer in use due to techincal failure, then I would be happy to support automated license transfers from those machines.

Why do you use a machine specific license?

Because this the only practical way, short of spyware, to ensure that the license isn’t being pirated – potentially on many thousands of machines, which is very common (ISV who have looked into this report more than 50% piracy rate).

Sorry, but this is bullshit. Congratulations, you just lost a customer.

R.I.P. Joe Zawinul

by

MetaFilter reports that The very great Joe Zawinul has passed at 75 Accordionist, proud Austrian, composer of Mercy, Mercy, In a Silent Way, and Birdland, associate of Miles, McLaughlin, Cannonball, Hancock, and Shorter, arguably the father of world music, Zawinul has left the building.

I really loved Weather Report. During my teenage years I listened to Jazz Fusion almost exclusively, including Weather Report and Return to Forever.

All FCAT, all the time

by

This story points out what’s wrong with Florida’s educational system. There’s too much emphasis on preparing for the FCAT (a standardized test), rather than actually learning.

One teacher told parents that there would be no curriculum other than FCAT practice until after the writing test in February. This is for a class of the most advanced students in the school. “I don’t teach any literature at all until after that time,â€? the English teacher said. “I’m sure you all understand.â€?

The reason for this madness is the FCAT rates the schools, not the students, and determines the school’s funding.

links for 2007-09-07

by

The Apple Tax

by

Scoble nails it.

You think you got it bad cause the iPhone dropped in price by $200? My family has bought three of them so far. Well, four, if you include Patrick’s mom, who just bought one a week ago. She’ll be able to get her $200 back, but the rest of us have paid an early-adopter-tax of $600.

My first response? This is nothing new.

I remember when Steve Wozniak showed me his new die-sublimation printer back in 1990. It cost him $40,000. Today a $70 printer does a better job.

This “reduce the pricing” trend is one of the reasons I LOVE this industry.

Seagate, today, just brought out new hard drives. More capacity. More features. Lower price.

Am I bummed that I spent $2,000 on my first 20 megabyte hard drive when today a $400 model is a terabyte? No. I’m happy!

I celebrate anytime our industry drops prices. It brings more people into what we’re doing.

Back to VMware

by

I’ve been using the new version of Parallels for about a week because Windows feels more responsive under Parallels and I really like the features. However, I find that it slows down my entire system very badly and uses a lot of CPU time even when Windows is idle. I finally decided to go back to VMware. I find that my system is a lot more responsive. However, window redrawing is ugly with Unity and switching between windows is a bit slower.

I really hate eBay

by

I relisted my MacBook Pro a second time, after the first buyer cancelled and it didn’t sell the second time. This time an asshole in Nigeria bought it even though I said very specifically in the listing that I would ONLY ship to the US or Canada. I am not selling it to him and I won’t ship it to Nigeria.

UPDATE: A few hours later I received a fake PayPal payment notice for that item. When I checked my PayPal account (by logging in manually, not through the email) of course no funds were deposited. On checking the email’s headers I see the sender address was paypalcustomerservice@generalmail.com and it was sent from an ISP in Germany. Ebay is now saying I owe over $100 for a sold item which didn’t sell. I’m getting really mad.

Comcast Forging Packets To Filter Torrents

by

Slashdot reports that Comcast is throttling BitTorrent traffic using forged TCP Reset (RST) packets, like the Great Firewall of China does. It turns out that Comcast may actually be violating criminal impersonation statutes in states around the country. While it’s legal to block traffic on your network, forging data to and from customers isn’t legal.

Comcast seems to forget that there are legitimate uses for BitTorrent, such as downloading Linux distros. Yet another reason I won’t switch from DSL.